‘Gold rush’ to misery for new township residents
GEORGE TOWN: Touted as the up-and-coming residential township in the greater Batu Kawan area, Bandar Tasek Mutiara was a “gold rush” over the past decade for house buyers who wanted to be part of Penang’s new industrial corridor.
However, some 5,000 residents of a newer phase of the township in Simpang Ampat are regretting their decision due to the presence of unhealthy pig and poultry farms in the vicinity.
The residents have to put up with stench and swarms of flies daily.
These farms predate the neighbourhood and are separated by small oil palm plantations. Seven pig and poultry farms are operating nearby, the Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) revealed in a reply to the residents last year.
Since moving in in 2016, the residents have been pointing out to the council that three farms were just 100m to 160m away, despite a requirement for them to be located at least 250m from homes, schools and places of worship.
Today, almost all the houses and eateries within a 1km radius of the farms have fly glue traps.
The residents have been having sleepless nights due to a putrid smell from the “open-type” pig farms, which worsens at the crack of dawn.
Bandar Tasek Mutiara’s nuisance action committee coordinator, Saravanan Balakrishnan, said more than 100 complaints had been lodged with MBSP and that they had been told the licences of all seven farms had been revoked.
The farms are still operating, he said.
Saravanan said city council officers would visit in the day and say there was no smell, despite being told the stench would worsen in the early hours of the morning.
He claimed their assemblyman had also not done much to solve their problems.
They decided to come out in the open because their appeals to the authorities, including the state government, over the years had gone unheeded.
Former Seberang Perai local councillor Johnson Anthonysamy said the council had previously decided to cancel all farming licences and to tear down the farms if they continued operating.
“I am surprised the problems have not been resolved despite the decisions made earlier,” he said.
FMT has reached out to MBSP for comments. - FMT
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